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At the Griphouse we have a large number of wonderful people who are all interested in health, fitness and the ancient arts of arse kickery. The nutritional side of things is something we haven’t really tackled as a gym. Sure guys have been passing around knowledge and supporting each other but we have never had a large scale Griphouse approved eating plan.

That’s what this experiment is all about. A big pile of us doing a nutritional intervention and seeing what happens.

One of the things I’ve picked up from cutting weight is that accountability makes for serious body composition change. Our fighters routinely lose around 5-10kg in the week leading up to a weigh in. They have a time frame, a date to be a certain weight. If they miss weight you are accountable and your team mates will hold you to it. To that end we have set up this Facebook page, where you can discuss the diet, share results and suggest alternative recipe ideas. Feel free to add yourself here:

We are interested in fat loss over weight loss though so don’t worry about having to sit in salt baths and saunas for ages. All you need to do is follow the program for a long as you like and reap the rewards.

Program Principles

Eat the same thing everyday

We tend to run into trouble with this question “what do I want to eat?”. By the time we ask it we are usually pretty hungry and cake seems to be the answer. By planning your meals and preparing them in advance this problem is dealt with.

On Sunday decide what you will eat and make a big pile of it. Enough to do the entire week or half of the week as I tend to do. Refrigerate or freeze it to keep it from going weird. Tupperware is your friend here.

If you have your meals prepared any poor food choices are on you.

You do not need variety. Yes it will be boring and by Friday you will hate the taste of it but it’s an easy path to improved body composition. This will involve mostly low carb fare such as soups, stews that sort of thing. More details tomorrow.

2. Drink 5cups of green tea a day

This isn’t because I think green tea has any mystical properties. It’s mainly down to ensuring hydration is maintained and well …..I like green tea. If you are caffeine sensitive any other herbal tea is fine.

When we are dehydrated we get hungry and eat stuff as the body can get a lot of hydration from solid food sources. It is often difficult to distinguish hunger and thirst. All of your systems tend to run sub optimally when in a dehydrated state.

The act of making tea also seems to distract from thoughts of food. That might just be me though.

3. A protein shake used when you start to get hungry and want cakes

Protein is the most satiating of the macronutrients and is a great weapon to stave of hunger. Most protein company’s get their whey protein from the same places so the individual brands sell pretty much the same product. More important get one you like the taste of it should almost be like a treat (sort of, it’s not really as good as a snickers, but chocolate protein with hazelnut milk tastes like Nutella which is pretty boss)

4. An apple of your choice as snacks whenever you want something crappy.

Again these should be with you wherever you go in case you start getting hungry. Apples are nutrient dense and have a sweetness that exceeds their calorie content. Pretty decent if you have a haribo problem.

So if after eating 3 meals, 5 cups of tea, a protein shake and 2 apples you still want doughnuts….well that’s pretty impressive actually.

5. Replace two meals each week with whatever you like.

Two meals a week eat something you want. It can be burgers, pizza , doughnuts whatever. Try not to go absolutely mental and stop when you’ve had enough. Plan it in advance and enjoy it.

And that is pretty much the program.

Tomorrow I’ll post the meal plans and dietary guidelines with the aim of kicking off on Monday 22nd